Chapter 31: Can We Trust Her?

Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Can We Trust Her?

She fell silent. For several seconds, she seemed to search through the fragments of her memory.

"I don’t know," she said.

Xavier’s gaze sharpened.

"You don’t know?" he said.

She shook her head.

"I just know I have to protect her," she said.

Then her eyes returned to Xavier.

"But I need your energy," she said, sounding completely sincere.

That made Xavier even more cautious. The system had identified Lydia as an investment target, which meant she possessed tremendous potential.

But that didn’t make her trustworthy. If she ever became a threat to Mira, Xavier would deal with her himself.

He slowly raised his hand. Chaotic energy gathered around his palm.

Lydia’s expression changed immediately. Fear flickered across her face.

Xavier noticed. So she was afraid of his power?

Why the hell was she begging desperately for it earlier? Interesting. Xavier thought.

He sent a small wave of chaotic energy toward her. The instant it reached her, Lydia’s entire figure dissolved into a streak of pale light. She shot backward and disappeared directly into Mira’s body.

Mira froze. Then Lydia’s voice echoed inside her.

"You woke me up..." she said, a faint note of grievance in her voice.

"Why did you attack me?" she added.

Mira stared ahead.

"Get out of my body!" she said.

"I can’t," Lydia said.

"Why?" Mira asked.

"I’ll disappear if I leave," Lydia said.

Mira’s anger faltered.

"You’ll die?" she asked.

"I think so," Lydia said.

"Then why have you been taking my energy?" Mira asked.

"I needed it to stay alive," Lydia said.

"You could have told me!" Mira said.

"I didn’t know how," Lydia said.

Mira was left speechless. For a moment, neither of them said anything.

Then the argument started again. Mira demanded that Lydia leave. Lydia insisted she couldn’t. Mira accused her of ruining her cultivation. Lydia insisted she had only been trying to survive. And no matter how many times Mira questioned her, Lydia eventually returned to the same request.

"I need that energy," she said.

"Just a little," she added.

"I need it..." she said.

Xavier finally sighed. This wasn’t getting them anywhere.

He raised his hand again. A small strand of chaotic energy appeared above his palm.

Lydia immediately sensed it. Her voice went silent. A faint figure emerged from Mira’s body. Her eyes locked onto the energy.

Before Xavier could react, she rushed forward and swallowed it. Her translucent body shimmered. Her eyes closed as a look of pure satisfaction appeared on her face.

"Ah..." she said, letting out a quiet sigh.

"That feels good," she added.

Her figure slowly began fading.

"Thank you," she said.

She looked at Mira.

"I’ll protect you," she said.

Then she dissolved into another streak of light and returned to Mira’s body.

Silence filled the room. Mira looked down at herself. Then she looked at Xavier. Xavier looked back at her. Neither of them seemed to know what to say.

Then the system notification appeared in Xavier’s mind.

[Investment confirmed.]

[One strand of Primordial Chaos Energy has been invested in the Devourer Bloodline.]

[Investment multiplier activated.]

[Return rate: 10x]

[Reward: Ten strands of Primordial Chaos Energy.]

A powerful surge immediately swept through Xavier’s body. His reserves of chaotic energy increased significantly.

Normally, a tenfold return would have been enough to put a smile on his face. Instead, Xavier remained thoughtful.

Lydia was clearly extraordinary. Her awakened Devourer Bloodline could consume magical energy, and she could apparently exist inside Mira’s body. But she was also unpredictable.

For six months, she had interfered with Mira’s cultivation without even understanding the damage she was causing. That made her a potential threat.

Still, Xavier had discovered something important. Lydia feared his chaotic energy. Yet at the same time, she desperately craved it.

As long as he maintained that advantage, she shouldn’t be able to cause much trouble. For now, he would leave things alone and keep a close watch on her.

If she remained harmless, there was no reason to turn her into an enemy.

Mira, however, was still struggling to accept the situation.

"So we’re really just letting her stay inside me?" Mira asked.

Xavier gave her a helpless look.

"What else can we do?" he replied.

"She ruined my cultivation for six months," Mira pointed out.

"I know," he admitted.

"And now she’s asking for your energy," she added.

"I noticed," he muttered.

Mira frowned.

"You don’t seem very worried," she said.

"I am," Xavier insisted.

"Then why are you smiling?" she demanded.

Xavier couldn’t help laughing at the absurdity of the situation. He slipped an arm around her shoulders and guided her toward the door.

"Because there’s nothing we can solve tonight," he said.

Mira glanced back toward the bedroom.

"Shouldn’t we figure out how to get her out?" she pressed.

"If she really can’t survive outside your body, forcing her out could kill her," Xavier reasoned.

Mira sighed.

"I still don’t trust her," she confessed.

"Neither do I," he agreed.

That answer seemed to reassure her slightly.

Xavier opened the door.

"Come on. We’ve spent enough time dealing with this," he said.

"We haven’t eaten yet," Mira reminded him.

She followed him reluctantly.

Just as they stepped into the hallway, a faint voice came from inside her.

"Chaos..." the voice whispered.

Mira stopped. Her expression immediately darkened.

Xavier covered his mouth, trying not to laugh.

"She wants more already," he teased.

"I heard her," Mira grumbled.

"Let’s eat before she starts asking for dessert," Xavier joked.

Mira shot him an exasperated look, but despite everything that had happened, the corner of her lips eventually lifted.

After dinner, neither Xavier nor Mira had much interest in staying up late.

They spent a little time together in the living room before returning to their separate bedrooms.

Both of them had only just awakened their special constitutions, and there was still much they needed to understand.

For Xavier, things were relatively straightforward. The information he had received from the system had already given him a basic understanding of the Primordial Chaos Physique.

What remained was to experiment with the strange energy now circulating through his body and learn how to use it properly.

Mira’s situation was considerably more complicated.

The awakening of her Frost Phoenix Bloodline had restored some of her lost strength, but it hadn’t completely repaired the damage caused by the removal of her divine bone.

Then there was Lydia. Knowing that another soul had been hiding inside her body for the past six months was enough to make anyone uneasy.

The moment Mira returned to her bedroom, she sat down on the edge of her bed and began cultivating.

She activated the third tier martial technique she had relied on since entering the Foundation Establishment Realm, the Grand Evolution Spirit Absorption Art.

The technique allowed her to draw spiritual energy from the surrounding environment and gradually refine it into power that could strengthen her body and cultivation.

For a Foundation Establishment martial artist, cultivation revolved around nine internal energy nodes.

When someone first entered the realm, all nine nodes remained dormant. Through continuous cultivation, spiritual energy would gradually accumulate within them until they were fully activated.

Every completed node represented another star of the Foundation Establishment Realm. That was why the realm was divided into nine stars.

Before whatever had happened to her six months ago, Mira had already activated three of those nodes.

She had been preparing to activate the fourth when something inside her body suddenly changed. From that point onward, her cultivation began declining instead of advancing.

Her fourth node never completed. Instead, the power she had spent years building gradually disappeared until she fell all the way from the fourth star to the first.

Tonight, however, everything had changed. After awakening the Frost Phoenix Bloodline, her first energy node had been restored.

Now she wanted to find out whether the second could begin recovering as well.

Mira closed her eyes and concentrated. Spiritual energy slowly gathered around her. She guided it through her meridians and toward the second energy node, carefully observing what happened next.

A moment later, her eyes snapped open.

"It works," she breathed, unmistakable excitement in her voice.

When she looked inward, she could clearly see spiritual energy flowing into the second node. The dim point was gradually beginning to glow.

For six months, every attempt she made to cultivate had ended the same way.

The spiritual energy she painstakingly gathered would simply disappear. But now, for the first time, she could actually feel herself growing stronger again.

And she immediately understood why.

"Lydia isn’t taking it anymore," she murmured.

A bright smile spread across Mira’s face.

"Xavier..." she whispered, unable to help feeling grateful.

The mysterious soul had been awakened by the strange energy inside Xavier’s body.

After receiving the small amount of Chaos Aura he had given her, Lydia had apparently gone dormant again.

Whether she had simply consumed enough or had become satisfied with the purer energy, Mira didn’t know.

But the result was the same. The spiritual energy she cultivated was finally staying inside her body.

After half a year of being trapped in place, her path of cultivation had finally opened again. Mira couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this relieved.

Then another thought surfaced. Xavier had mentioned that he had offended Ethan and the Carter family. Her smile gradually faded.

"The Carter family..." she muttered.

There was no doubt that they would eventually retaliate.

Mira clenched her hands.

"I need to become stronger," she vowed.

She couldn’t allow anyone to hurt Xavier because of her. If the Carter family came after them, she wanted to have enough strength to protect him herself.

With that thought, Mira settled her mind and resumed cultivating.

There was something else she found curious. Xavier was becoming more mysterious by the day.

The precious elixirs he somehow managed to obtain, the strange Chaos Aura within his body, and now the astonishing transformation he had undergone.

She didn’t understand any of it. But Mira had no intention of interrogating him.

They were husband and wife. If Xavier wasn’t ready to tell her about his secrets, then he must have his reasons.

And she trusted him enough to believe that when the time came, he would tell her what she needed to know.

The hardships of the past six months had taught her something important. Not everything needed an immediate answer. Sometimes, trust was enough.

The following morning, Xavier and Marcus left their apartment together.

They had barely reached the entrance of the residential complex and unlocked their shared bicycles when Marcus started talking excitedly.

"Xavier, did you see what happened in the sky last night?" he burst out, shaking his head in disbelief.

"My entire social feed was flooded with it. Apparently, someone awakened an incredible special constitution. Whoever that person is, they’ve struck gold," he added.

Marcus laughed.

"If I could somehow get close to someone like that, I’d be set for life," he mused.

Xavier couldn’t help smiling. Marcus had always been realistic.

Most young people who witnessed such an extraordinary phenomenon would probably dream of becoming the person responsible for it.

Marcus was different. He wasn’t dreaming about becoming some legendary powerhouse himself. He was thinking about how to become useful to one.

Xavier understood that mentality all too well. Before everything changed for him, he had thought the same way. Now, however, things were different.

"You’ll get your chance," Xavier said, patting Marcus on the shoulder.

Marcus immediately looked at him.

"Wait. Do you know who awakened?" he pressed.

Xavier’s expression barely changed.

"What makes you think that?" he countered.

"You sounded awfully confident just now," Marcus said, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"Don’t tell me you’re the one who awakened that special constitution?" he added.

Xavier nearly laughed.

"If I were, do you honestly think I’d be standing here riding to work with you?" he shot back.

That was enough to silence Marcus.

Of course, Xavier had no intention of telling him the truth. The phenomenon that had shaken the surrounding cities had come from him and Mira.

There was no reason to announce that. He trusted Marcus, but some secrets were dangerous simply because they were known.

After spending years in this world, Xavier understood that attracting too much attention was never wise. The larger the commotion, the more people would come looking.

And judging from the scale of last night’s phenomenon, there was no doubt that powerful organizations and individuals were already searching for whoever had caused it.